Dental instrument.



Patented Apr. 20, 1915 HERMAN E. S. CHAYES, OF N YORK, N. Y.

DENTAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 20, 1915.

Application filed March 7, 1912. Serial No. 682,145.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HERMAN E. S. CHAYES, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dental Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to dental instruments of the kind known as paralleling devices, the purpose of which is to aid in securing parallelism of the sockets formed in and the devices used on the pier teeth which engage the complementary parts of removable bridgework. Heretofore, such parallelism has been secured, if at all, largely as a result of the care and skill of the dentist, and results have been uncertain and merely approximate at best. It is the object of my invention to provide means for the attainment of such parallelism with certainty and expedition, and without requirin g more than ordinary mechanical skill on the part of the dentist.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less broad than those stated above, together with the advantages inherent, will be in part obvious and in part specifically referred to in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts, and applications of principles constituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplated will appear from the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as a part of this specification, and in which I have shown a merely preferred form of embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is an elevation on an enlarged scale of a paralleling instrument embodying my invention; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 22 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows; and, Fig. l is an elevation of one of the supporting plates detached.

Referring to the numerals on the drawings, there is shown at 1 and 2 a pair of elongated plates having curved trough-like sides, the sides of plate 2 telescoping slidably within those of plate 1, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and inclosing a hollow space between the two plates. A pair of lugs 3 and 4 is bent inwardly from the ends of plate 1. A screw-threaded rod 5 is provided with a knurled head 6 and with a stem having a circumferential groove 7 into which are received the sides of a fork 8 formed in the lug l. The free end of the screw-threaded rod 5 has its bearing in an opening through the lug 3, and the threads on the rod 5 also engage corresponding threads formed in an opening in a lug 9 which is bent inwardly from the end of the plate 2. With this construction it will be evident that when the threaded rod 5 is turned about its longitudinal axis by twisting the knurled head 6, it moves or adjusts the plates 1 and 2 on each other to carry them to a greater or less extent into or out of telescoped relation, depending upon the direction of rotation. lVhile the plates or members 1 and 2 are thus capable of relative longitudinal movement, they are restrained against any other relative movement, and the slow motion resulting from the manipulation of the screw makes possible the fine adjustments which it is desirable to make with an instrument of this sort.

in the present embodiment of the invention I show at 10 tubular guide or holding portions on the plates 1 and 2, all of which guide portions are in a definite relation to the plates or members 1 and 2, and parallel; and in the present embodiment the parallelism of these guide portions is unaffected by the manipulation of the adjustment means, though it does affect the distance between a guide portion of one plate and a guide portion on the other plate. In the illustrated form, these guide portions 10 are tubes, open at both ends and mounted on plates 11, which latter are removably secured to the plates or members 1 and 2 as by means of screws 12. Guide portions of diffcrent bore may be provided on these tubes 11, so that a guide of the exact bore required for the particular work in hand is always available on the instrument by merely removing the plate 11 carrying the guide portion 10 that is not desired, and substituting for it a plate carrying the guide portion that is desired. These guide portions 10 are in the nature of holders, and are intended to receive rods or tubes or other rod-like elements shown at 17 and 18, which are required in the bridgework operation and which, for the purpose of such operation, must be adjustable as to distance apart, while at the same time they must be parallel to each other. The rod-like elements have walls which are longitudinally parallel to their axes, and may be employed to insure the proper parallelism of the vertical walls of the sockets which have to be formed in the pier teeth, and to support root-canal tubes, impression-cups,'&c., in the various steps of a removable bridgework operation. The, rod-like members 17 and 18 may be detachably held in the holders 10 as by means of set screws 19, and it is evident that since the rod-like elements 17 and 18 may be inserted into and removed from either or both ends of the tubular holders 10, either side of the instrument may be used, and the rodlike elements may be fixed in any desired position within the holding portions 10; but they will always be parallel.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of my invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

7 1. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of relatively movable members, slow-motion means for causing relative movement between the members to adjust them to any one of an infinite number of relative positions, and rod-like elements of the kind described for the members supported in definite relation thereto, and parallel to each other in each of the relative positions of the members.

2. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a part of relatively movable members, slow-motion means for causing relative movement between the members to adjust them to any one of an infinite number of relative positions, a rod-like element of the kind described carried by one of the members, the other member having a portion adapted to support another of such rod-like elements in a definite relation to the member, said members being so connected that in any relative position to which they may be moved the rod-like element of the first member will be parallel to a rod- 1 like element which may be supported by the second member.

, 3. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of relatively movable members, slow-motion means for causing relative movement between the members to adjust them to any one of an infinite number of relative positions, each member having a portion adapted to support a rod-like element of the kind described in a definite relation to the member, and said members being so connected that in any relative position to which they may be moved, the rod-like element which may be supported by one member will be parallel to the rod-like element which may be supported by the other member.

4:. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of relatively movable members, slow-motion means for causing relative movement between the members to adjust them to any one of an infinite number of relative positions, and rod-like elements of the kind described for the members supported in definite relation thereto and parallel to each other in each of the relative positions of the members, one of said rod-like elements being adjustable on its support without disturbing the parallelism referred to.

5. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of elongated members longitudinally slidable relatively to each other and restrained against any other relative movement, a rod-like element carried by each sliding member in parallelism, and screw means carried by one of the sliding members and engaging the other, for effecting the aforesaid relative longitudinal movement between the members.

6. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of elongated members longitudinally slidable relatively to each other and restrained against any other relative movement, each sliding member being provided with a tubular portion adapted to accommodate a rod-like element, and each tubular holder being provided with means for locking in place a rod-like element which may be placed therein, and screw means carried by one of the sliding members and engaging the other for effecting such relative longitudinal movement, the bores of all of the tubular portions being parallel.

7. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of elongated members mounted to move longitudinally relatively to each other, a tubular holder carried by each member, the bores of such tubular members being parallel and adapted to accommodate rod-like elements, means for locking in place within the tubular holder a rod-like element which may be placed therein, and a screw supported by one of the pair of members and engaging the other, said screw extending longitudinally of the pair of members and having its end accessible at one end of the member which carries it.

8. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of elongated members relatively longitudinally movable and providing an elongated chamber between them, and a screw carried by one of the members and engaging the other, said screw being accommodated in the said elongated chamber, each of said pair of members having a tube-like attaching portion extending transversely of the length thereof, the bores of said tube-like attaching portions being parallel.

9. A dental instrument of the kind de scribed, comprising a pair of elongated members relatively longitudinally movable and restrained against any other relative movement, each of said pair of members having a tube-like holding portion open at both ends and extending transversely of the line of travel of the members, said tubelike members being adapted to accommodate rod-like elements, and means for locking in the tubular holding portions attachments Which may be placed therein, the tube-like holding portions being straight and parallel.

10. A dental instrument of the kind described, comprising a pair of elongated members relatively longitudinally movable and restrained against any other relative movement, each of said pair of members having a tube-like holding portion open at both ends and extending transversely of the line of travel of the members, said tube-like members being adapted to accommodate rod-like elements, and means for locking in the tubular holding portions attachments which may be placed therein, the tube-like holding portions being straight and parallel, and being detachably connected to the elongated members.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of tWo Witnesses.

HERMAN E. S. CHAYES.

Witnesses:

SOHERR, Jr., ALAN G. MCDONNELL.

G'opies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. G. 

